Protecting Our Communities

Tag Archives: volunteer

Welcome to my latest update, it has been a busy few months since my update in April.

Kayleigh HaywoodAt the beginning of July, two local men were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment following the grooming, false imprisonment, rape and murder of Measham teenager Kayleigh Haywood.

Kayleigh was groomed online by Luke Harlow, before she was killed by his next door neighbour, Stephen Beadman, in the early hours of Sunday 15 November 2015.
At Nottingham Crown Court on the 1st July, Beadman, was given a life sentence, to serve a minimum of 35 years, after pleading guilty to murder and rape and being found guilty of false imprisonment.

Harlow, of George Avenue, Ibstock, was sentenced to a total of 12 years after being found guilty of false imprisonment and having pleaded guilty to meeting Kayleigh following sexual grooming, two counts of sexual activity with her, and two counts of attempting to meet two other girls following sexual grooming.

My thoughts as always, are with Kayleigh’s family and friends and I know this case has had a powerful impact across North West Leicestershire. Leicestershire Police have made a film about Kayleigh’s story which was shown extensively in Measham, Ibstock, and Coalville in early July.

In September, when the schools return all children aged 11 years and older in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland will be given the opportunity to see the film.
It is a powerful film and we are grateful to Kayleigh’s family for allowing us to tell her story and I am sure it will make a difference.

The film has attracted a lot of interest and all police forces have been given the opportunity to use it in their work with young people. I understand that once the programme for showing the film to schools has been completed then it will be released publicly.

Download Festival
In June we had the 2016 European Football Championships, and locally at the same time the Download Festival took place. I have to confess that I am not a massive fan of football, but I do know enough that England did not do very well, and the Welsh team did a lot better than expected.
For the police, the Download Festival was a massive success, despite the efforts of the weather to ruin it. This year only 42 crimes were reported to us, compared to 60 the previous year which we thought we would not be able to improve on after the excellent results from last year. Crime has now fallen, year-on-year, for three years and figures are at an all-time low.

2011 – 159
2012 – 195
2013 – 301
2014 – 92
2015 – 60
2016 – 42

I would like to pay tribute to the work of all of our neighbourhood officers to ensure that not only do we deal with 80,000 people visiting our area for the five days of the festival, but also carry on with normal day to day policing.

Rural Watch

In February this year Leicestershire Police set up Rural Watch, to create a network of villagers, farmers, churches and businesses that can work together to address local policing issues, share information and combat crime affecting parts of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Rural Watch brings together several existing schemes, including Horse Watch, Church Watch and Farm Watch, which have been operating across Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, to create a bigger network and to help ensure everyone has access to advice and information.

Rural Watch is open to anyone who lives, works or visits rural locations in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. For more information about the scheme, and to find crime prevention advice on a range of topics, visit RURAL WATCH
If you are interested in joining the scheme please email your details to rural.watch@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk

You can also follow Rural Watch on twitter @Leicsruralwatch or on Facebook/leicsruralwatch

VolunteersIn North West Leicestershire we are lucky to have a great set of volunteers who give up so much of their time to support policing and the local community. At Download each year we rely on our volunteers to help provide crime prevention advice, and we have an active group of Special Constables and Police Cadets.

In June Special Sergeant Lee Bennett won the Outstanding Leader award at the Leicestershire Police Volunteers in Policing award ceremony. I must congratulate Lee on his well deserved award. More recently our specials have not only been assisting on day to day work but also when we have executed search warrants.

Our Police Cadets are a great bunch of young people who are learning about policing as well as undertaking initiatives in the community. On the 1st July Leicestershire Police held a memorial service to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first day of the battle of the Somme. Emily Monk, who is a cadet from North West Leicestershire, along with several cadets from around Leicestershire attended the service. Emily volunteered to give one of the readings at a ceremony that proved to be very moving.

If you would like to know more about volunteering, please visit this link VOLUNTEERING